A pure carbon classic! http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/11/us-space-diamond-planet-idUSBRE89A0PU20121011 So... anybody out there pining for a larger wedding ring? This is the stuff of classic sci-fi. "Orbiting a star that is visible to the naked eye, astronomers have discovered a planet twice the size of our own made largely out of diamond. The rocky planet, called '55 Cancri e', orbits a sun-like star in the constellation of Cancer and is moving so fast that a year there lasts a mere 18 hours. Discovered by a U.S.-Franco research team, its radius is twice that of Earth's but it is much more dense with a mass eight times greater. It is also incredibly hot, with temperatures on its surface reaching 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,648 Celsius). "The surface of this planet is likely covered in graphite and diamond rather than water and granite," said Nikku Madhusudhan, the Yale researcher whose findings are due to be published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters."
This is very cool. But I have to admit, its very bizarre. If they made a Star Trek episode where the crew found a diamond planet, I would have said it was poor writing. Who knew this could be real?
..what..Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds? From The Beatles, Sgt. Peppers Album. That's the reference I got anyway.
If it's as active as I hope it is, they should name it Winstone, the planet of diamond geysers. That is so 49 years from now.
There was already a planet named Lucy: http://www.spacetoday.org/DeepSpace/Stars/WhiteDwarfs/LucyDiamondStarWhiteDwarf.html A diamond planet isn't exactly a new thing.
I remember that on a recent documentary. Uranus is similar. Now one of these ice giants (I forget which) got knocked on its side, so I wonder if some of its diamonds have been hurled about the solar system, waiting harvest. Speaking of harvest--what if two small asteroids do a head on high in earths atmosphere. Bad for spacejunk, but not below a certain level. The explosion is high enough not to be a danger, and the debris falls at terminal velocity as a rain of iron and other elements pre-melted. No crater.
I wonder if uranus rings have diamond. They are quite dark--carbon? www.space.com/13231-planet-uranus-knocked-sideways-impacts.html If there are diamond rings around uranus (snicker) those would be the most easily harvested resources--more so than raw ore from asteroids.
I dunno. Regardless of what the rings are made of, it would be like putting yourself through a meat grinder to score some of that.
Maybe some astronomers are kind of "out there," but I didn't know any of them were actually orbiting a star! Or Lorelei Lee. And no, I don't mean the porn actress.